Surveillance which the United States demands Britain carry out on prisoners from Guantanamo Bay as a condition of freeing them would divert vital resources from more urgent threats, a British official has testified. "The use of such resources ... at the level that would be required by the U.S. administration could not be justified, and would damage the protection of the UK's national security," Home Office (interior ministry) official William Nye said in a written witness statement to the Court of Appeal obtained by Reuters."It would involve the diversion of a significant quantity of finite intelligence-gathering resources ... from those who pose a greater threat to national security," he said.Widely criticized abroad over conditions at the Guantanamo base on Cuba where it still holds some 450 inmates, the United States has gradually released several hundred prisoners to their countries of origin or residence.... http://news.yahoo.com

Two Turks who wanted to protest Pope Benedict XVI's planned trip to Turkey next month hijacked a Turkish Airlines plane carrying 113 people from Albania to Istanbul on Tuesday, and it landed safely in this southern Italian coastal city, officials said.The hijackers, who were unarmed, told authorities they were prepared to surrender, said Candan Karlitekin, chairman of Turkish Airlines' board of directors. He said no one aboard the Boeing 737-400 was injured.Istanbul Deputy Gov. Vedat Muftuoglu also said the hijackers had agreed to give themselves up shortly.A Vatican official, asked about the hijacking, said he expected no changes in the pope's plans for the visit. The official, who asked that his name not be used because of the sensitivity of the issue, said an official Vatican announcement that the trip would take place Nov. 28-Dec. 1 would be made soon....http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2006-10-03-hijacking_x.htm?csp=34

The Security Council is poised to select South Korean Foreign Minister Ban Ki-moon as the next U.N. secretary-general as soon as Monday, after his fourth consecutive strong showing in a straw poll yesterday. Fourteen council members yesterday endorsed his candidacy in principle, while one unnamed nation offered "no opinion." The vote is likely to take place Monday, council diplomats said yesterday. "We have a lot of respect for Foreign Minister Ban," said U.S. Ambassador John R. Bolton after yesterday afternoon's poll. "We know him well from his service in Washington and think very highly of him professionally and personally." "I can say the United States is very pleased with the outcome of the vote," Mr. Bolton added. The poll yesterday was the fifth in the council and the first to reveal which of the five permanent members cast "discourage" votes -- a situation that could turn into a veto...http://www.washingtontimes.com/world/20061002-115815-9234r.htm

The death toll from the shooting of at least 10 girls at an Amish school in Pennsylvania rose to five today.Two pupils died overnight after Charles Carl Roberts IV, who apparently harboured a 20-year-old grudge, stormed the single-room rural school in the reclusive religious community in Nickel Mines, Lancaster County, yesterday. Among the latest deaths was a seven-year-old girl who died at about 4.30am (0930 BST) at Penn State children's hospital in Hershey, hospital spokeswoman Amy Buehler Stranges said."Her parents were with her," Ms Buehler Stranges said. "She was taken off life support and she passed away shortly after."No details of the other victims have been released. The Pennsylvania state police commissioner, Jeffrey Miller, said the injured girls were aged between six and 13. One was in an "extremely critical" condition and another four were also fighting for their lives...http://www.guardian.co.uk/usguns/Story/0,,1886486,00.html

Republican U.S. House leaders faced mounting pressure over a congressional sex scandal on Tuesday, with Speaker Dennis Hastert rejecting calls to step down for his handling of sexual messages sent to teen-age boys by Rep. Mark Foley. The Washington Times, a leading conservative newspaper and usually a supporter of Republicans, accused Hastert of barely pursuing warnings about Foley's messages and said in an editorial he "must do the only right thing, and resign his speakership at once." Hastert has denied any knowledge of Foley's overtly sexual Internet messages to male congressional pages until they were made public on Friday, and his spokesman rejected the calls for his resignation. "The speaker has and will lead the Republican conference to another majority in the 110th Congress," said spokesman Ron Bonjean. The disclosures were a blow to Republicans as they fight to retain control of Congress in elections on November 7...http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory?id=2522178

North Korea announced plans today to test a nuclear weapon in a move aimed at ratcheting up tension in east Asia and forcing the US to halt financial sanctions.The declaration - which comes less than three months after Pyongyang test-fired an intercontinental missile that would put Alaska and Hawaii within range of its warheads - was immediately condemned by the US, Japan and Britain."The US extreme threat of a nuclear war and sanctions and pressure compel the DPRK to conduct a nuclear test, an essential process for bolstering nuclear deterrent, as a self-defence measure in response," said a statement in English carried by the North's official Korean Central News Agency....http://www.guardian.co.uk/korea/article/0,,1886732,00.html?gusrc=rss&feed=12